Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD

Director, Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Cancer Research Institute at BIDMC

Chief, Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, BIDMC

Director, Cancer Genetics Program, BIDMC

George C. Reisman Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

Education, Training, Appointments

Pier Paolo Pandolfi received his MD in 1989 and his PhD in 1996 from the University of Perugia, Italy, after having studied philosophy at the University of Rome, Italy. He received post-graduate training at the National Institute for Medical Research and the University of London in the UK.

He became an Assistant Member of the Molecular Biology Program and the Department of Human Genetics at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1994. Dr. Pandolfi grew through the ranks to become Member in the Cancer Biology and Genetics Program at the Sloan Kettering Institute; Professor of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics at the Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Cornell University; Professor, Molecular Biology in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Medical College at Cornell University; and Head of the Molecular and Developmental Biology Laboratories at MSKCC. Dr. Pandolfi was also the incumbent of the Albert C. Foster Endowed Chair for Cancer Research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Pandolfi presently holds the Reisman Endowed Chair of Medicine and is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He serves as the Director of the Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Cancer Research Institute; Director, Cancer Genetics Program; and Chief, Division of Genetics in the Department of Medicine, BIDMC, and is a Member of the Department of Pathology, BIDMC.

Awards

Dr. Pandolfi has received numerous awards in recognition of his achievements. He received the LLSA Scholar Award in 1997, the Irma T. Hirschl Trust Award, the Alexandra J. Kefalides Prize for Leukemia Research in 1999, the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence 2000, the Lombroso Prize for Cancer Research of the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2001, the LLSA Stohlman Scholar Award, in 2004, the William and Linda Steere Foundation Award and in 2005 the prize for Scientific Excellence in Medicine from the AICF. He also has recently been awarded the NIH MERIT Award for superior competence and outstanding productivity in research. In 2006 Dr. Pandolfi was elected as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians, and in 2007, he was elected as an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. In 2011, he received the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR (American Association of Cancer Research) International Award for Cancer Research.

Research Interests

Genetics and Biology of Cancer

Basic Research

The research carried out in Dr. Pandolfi's laboratory has been seminal at elucidating the molecular mechanisms and the genetics underlying the pathogenesis of leukemias, lymphomas and solid tumors as well as in modeling these cancers in the mouse. Dr. Pandolfi and colleagues have characterized the function of the fusion oncoproteins and the genes involved in the chromosomal translocations of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), as well as of major tumor suppressors such PTEN and p53 and novel proto-oncogenes such POKEMON. The elucidation of the molecular basis underlying APL pathogenesis has led to the development of novel and effective therapeutic strategies. As a result of these efforts, APL is now considered a curable disease. Novel therapeutic concepts have emerged from this work that are currently been tested in clinical trials.